1 902 Some Deep-Sea Plunder 3 1 1 



For the benefit of those not learned in the lore of fisheries, 

 it may be well to insert here a prefatory note as to why it 

 should be necessary to go so far a-field — or rather, a-sea — 

 in order to supply the suburban breakfast -table. Most 

 people are accustomed to think of the more usual varieties 

 of fish which they eat as having been taken from the North 

 Sea. When they spend their holidays on the East Coast 

 they observe with interest the various fishing fleets, and 

 picking up a dangerously small modicum of knowledge, 

 return to town to speak airily of smacks and trawlers, and 

 refer vaguely but familiarly to the Dogger Bank, as if they 

 had been in the habit of cashing cheques there for years. 

 Time was when this common supposition was justified ; 

 but the old assertion that "there are just as good fish 

 in the sea as ever came out of it " barely holds good of 

 the North Sea. In the palmy days of the fishing-smack, 

 sailing pretty much whither the wind listed, and con- 

 sequently towing its trawl more or less at random, the 

 shoals were given at least a sporting chance. Then came 

 the steam-trawler, independent of wind and tide. A favour- 

 able patch of ground would be struck ; over the side went 

 a buoy, and round and round that blessed mark would 

 steam the trawler, till every fish in the neighbourhood had 

 been cleared off. The North Sea fishing - grounds are 

 limited in extent, and the inevitable happened. Then the 

 Iceland fisheries — discovered, so far as Grimsby was con- 

 cerned, but little more than a score of years ago, by an 

 enterprising shipowner who sailed north in a codman to 

 investigate the reports brought back by long - voyaging 

 boats of that class — were opened, and the North Sea was 

 handed back, generally speaking, to the stay - at - home 

 smack. In one respect, it should be mentioned, the pro- 

 verb holds good : the North Sea fish still maintain their 

 supremacy as regards quality, and consequently as regards 

 price. But a trawler towing for six hours in the North 

 Sea will catch less than its fellow on the Iceland grounds 

 will often bring up in half an hour or less. 



Of the voyage to Iceland and the crew aboard, interesting 

 as were the incidents of the former and the personalities 

 of the latter, it is unnecessary to treat in these pages. Let 



